Technolandy

Day 31 (of 2026/27) Rethinks the weeks?? Thanks @bran_Weikle from @cbcradio

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving/two-day-weekend-is-100-years-old-9.7382232

The five day week is a legacy of the industrial age… but a good part of it… but maybe things could be.. better refined?

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We are definitely ‘dialled in’ to a 5 day work / 2 day ‘off’ mindset of work and school (K-12) with ‘radicals’ suggesting a (gasp) four day week – that is usually tied in with cutting costs by not having to pay non-salaried employees as much…

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Maybe it’s because we aren’t changing our clocks this fall…

But… maybe the 2 day weekend is due for a makeover…

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After all, with the increase connectivity with AI, work is changing…

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And the campaign started by unions in the Industrial Revolution to shift away from a 6 day/10 hour work week to our current 5 days/40 hours (as ‘full time’) has had a good run…

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Current provocation: Can we build a new society? Is our current society/direction sustainable? 

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Reflection: my high school English teacher also had a PE major because when he was going to school (late middle half of the 20th century) there was a belief that with computers, there was going to be so much leisure time that society needed more Physical Education specialists to help people learn ‘things to do’…

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Well, that missed… but maybe like so many other things… it was just too early of a consideration…

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Also admitting that the difference between a utopia and dystopia is razor thin (or maybe just a matter of perspective) – I love the futures laid out in Star Trek and The Orville where a persons ‘wealth’ is how they contribute to society via passions and/or service… 

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Admittedly pretty socialist societies – but that’s not a bad thing… 

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Though like so much in education – an ‘ism’ (that in high school we definitely connected with communism in specific… especially after reading Animal Farm) that tends to work better on paper than in practice because of humanity…

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But maybe AI can be a good collaborator to help this transition…

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I do whine that our education system is really set up to perpetuate and support the industrial/factory mindset, and recent changes (our province has added ‘child care’ the the ministry of education) make me wonder how we better serve and support our families who socio-economically could definitely use the ‘school baby sitting’ model but at the times they tend to work (currently evenings and weekends)…

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Maybe this is an opportunity to rethink how we do … a lot of things…

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We’ve already taken on the tradition of changing clocks… I am looking forward to seeing how that doesn’t happen this fall, even though it’ll mean I’m out of synch with my sister who lives in Seattle… and how it impacts my sports viewing… that could change my so far optimism about this decision…

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Maybe it’s time to rethink how we structure the week…

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Not necessarily the calendar… though some have tried..

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After all, it’s 514AF in this Brave New World  Hmm how many days are in a Huxley week?? Ooh, my AI collaborator saved me a trip to my home library… still a 7 day week – the roman calendar continues!

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Just thinking about time… and days… and clocks… remember to be kind to people… as I reminded a staff member today who had some unexpected delays to her getting to work… I am a believer of -ish… 9ish start times works better than 9:00 (by who’s watch/phone?) but a deeper dive on that … later…!